Newpro is a brand of replacement windows that relies on salespeople coming to the house and demonstrating the product. There are many stories online about aggressive sales pitches and outrageous initial price quotes. One person was quoted $17,000 for 12 windows, another was told the price was $29,000 for 17 windows. Borrowing from the timeshare salesperson’s book of tricks, the window pitchman typically checks with his boss, and gets permission to lower the price several thousand dollars. The price still remains quite high, according to reports.
But that is not what this week’s Mouse Print* is about. It is about the 40% fuel savings guarantee that Newpro advertises on TV and on the Internet.
On their website, Newpro elaborates on their promise that you will “Save 40% on your Home Heating Costs — Guaranteed!*”
So far, so good, (except for having to replace all the windows in your house) until you follow the asterisk to the footnote:
*MOUSE PRINT:
**Restrictions apply. Fuel Savings Guarantee applies to homes where all windows are replaced with Newpro 2000 Windows. $500 limit applies. See Newpro Associate for details.
A $500 maximum? If the windows did not reduce your fuel costs at all, in order to earn the maximum refund, your heating costs could be no higher than $1250 a year. ($1250 x 40% = $500). For most homes, you probably pay much more than that annually for heat. Another example:  if your fuel costs were $3000 last winter, and you only experienced a 20% reduction this coming season, you would only qualify for $500 of the $600 you were owed.
While the 40% fuel savings claim is a great marketing tool, by limiting the refund to $500 and only making it apply for the first year, your new Newpro windows may not ultimately save you as much money over their life as you might expect.Â
The even deeper details  say they do not calculate your refund based on the costs of heating from last year to this, but rather on your consumption (with oil falling in price, this is a good thing). Additionally, only their high-end windows qualify. And, if it is a really cold winter this year (“abnormal weather conditions”), the claim will be reduced.
So if you plan to make a $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000 purchase of new windows, keep in mind that a possible refund of $500 is miniscule in comparison, for what many say are grossly overpriced windows.
The fact that endorser Jerry “Remdork” Remy highly touts them should be reason enough to avoid these clowns. When purchasing windows a few years back, we had these sleazeballs out to our house for an estimate. After they were through with their pitch and requisite Sales Tactic games, we had to take a hot oil bath to wash away the grime we felt all over from the load of baloney piled on us. Then we spent 3 days laughing at the quote. It always amazes me that companies can’t just employ HONEST offers and tactics in making sales. It’s also interesting to note, the more a company advertises, the worse the advertised item or service seems to be. It’s a direct correlation.
It is nonsense to think going from an r factor of 1 to an r factor of 3 with insulated windows can save you 50 percent of heating bills. Lots of houses have attics with insulation of r 30 Walls may have an r factor of at least 11. Changing windows from 1 to 3 r wont make much difference in your heating bill. You wont have much mildew below the window however. that is nice.
They are probably happy to pay out the $500 claims. Basically sounds like $500 dollars off new windows that are going to cost you way too much anyway. They are still making a killing. Stick with respected window companies!
A lot of people don’t spend that much on heating for a year. My 110-year old 1500 square foot house: Our heating, AC, water heater, AND electricity bill for a year is under $1600, so I’m pretty confident our heating bill is under $1250. We use heat responsibly–house is at 68 when we are up and about, turned down to 63 at night (sometimes lower, it’s just that DH stays up late and I get up early so it really doesn’t drop a whole lot even though we set it at 55), turned down when we are out for a few hours (DH is a stay at home Dad or else it would be down all day long while at work saving us lots more). These are all common frugal/money saving tips for heating costs, which millions of people use.
We recently replaced every window in our house. Our heating bills haven’t dropped–in either cost or amount of gas used. Oh well. But at least all of our windows now work–we think we’re saving on AC in the summer instead.
A few years back, we replaced the windows in our previous house through a company that basically offered the same discount. Guaranteed 40% reduction in heating bills. We paid $10k for 8 windows, but only replaced the upstairs (we had a few windows in the unfinished basement, and since we didn’t use it that much, we didn’t want to spend the money to replace those). After a year, we saw no changes in our heating bills at all (seriously, zero!). I live in Seattle, and most older homes have little to no insulation in the walls (how can windows save heat when the walls, which make up 90% of the structure of the house don’t insulate at all). However, we didn’t get a refund because we didn’t replace the windows in our basement (even though there was no heating down there…still didn’t matter).
However, although I was a bit upset, it was my fault for not completely understanding the agreement and refund fine print. But we were very happy with the windows, the installation process and the overall experience. The windows were fist class, and beautiful, and definitely helped to keep the house cool in the summertime.
This is impossible. Heat loss through windows, of a properly insulated house, is about 40% of your heating budget. However, even if you go to ultra-high-efficiency windows, you can’t wipe that all out and the best windows in America can only recoup about 60% of this loss giving you a total energy savings of 25%.
And this is in a properly insulated house.
You have some 1920’s monster like mine, and while the new windows I’ve put in a few rooms are great, upgrading the failing 6 SEER gas unit with the 17 SEER hybrid heat pump and massive upgrading of the un-insulated walls/under-insulated attic were much more important.
And it wasn’t even as expensive as these windows. I dropped $11,000 on a complete retrofit, including all new duct work and proper vent layout. The installation was relatively inexpensive. I don’t think I spent $1,000.
Along similar lines of dumb advertising is National Floor Direct which will beat a competitors offer by 15% or the flooring is free. Just look at how idiotic that statement is. Twice I have emailed the company to ask how many they have given away free? Naturally, no response.
A few years ago we had ten windows replaced and a massive Bay Window all done by Penquin Windows. 15K total with the Bay being the costly one. They have a free replacement guarantee and I’ve had four replaced all ready – two for leakage and two for damage not related to window construction. As far as the heat bill forget it but their replacement has been no problem.
Companies still doing business this way won’t stay in business much longer. This company has been using high pressure sales for more years it should have. There was logic to their aproach years ago, but today people are more informed and use the internet to find facts about purchases of high ticket items. When a rep comes to your home and needs to spend 45 minutes telling you about the company and product, then another 45 minutes on a product demonstartion and trying to “one call close” you… it frustrates a lot of homeowners. No wonder a company once doing over $16 Million a year is doing less than half of that now. It’s sad, because the product is the best.. but for too much.
I must admit that my wife and i were skeptical regarding the fuel savings pledge, but we replaced all the windows in our home with Newpro windows and i must admit we had a major savings in fuel consumption. I couldn’t be happier with my investment. The windows were on the expensive side, but i think they were well worth it!
I had Newpro replace all the windows in my house. The windows that were replaced were single pane, wood windows. Newpro came out and showed me their product and I was impressed. Newpro was the 13th window company I had over my house for a quote. I was very impressed by the professionalism of the Newpro sales rep and was very impressed with the product. I even jumped on the windows.
They installed the windows just like they said they would, they cleaned everything up when they were done, and they showed me how to use the windows. Now I know that sounds dumb, but they showed me how to clean them and remove them.
I would highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for replacement windows (or windows in general). I am putting Newpro windows in my new addition (an additional 18 windows to the 24 already installed). If I could give any tips to consumers, you can shop around like I did or just go to the #1 window installer around.
I am so please with the windows and the energy savings, I am installing Newpro Siding on my house. Again, there is nothing on the market like their siding.
I could not be more disappointed with this company! I was looking to replace
just one window in my home–the others had all been done by a previous owner
with Newpro. In that initial call, I was coaxed into the in-home appt, which I
knew I did not need, since I knew the size I wanted and just needed to order
a single window. When the sales guys came to my house, they were disappointed to
find the scope of the job and while they were pleasant, they left quickly
apologizing for the miscommunication. Apparently, the appt should never have
been scheduled. Turns out they only do or want to do whole house projects,
including installation, at a cost, I was told of about $1000/window. Considering
I could order any single window for under $200 at Home Depot and have my own
installer do it for $50/hr, using Newpro did not make sense for me. All of this
would have been fine, except that the day after the appt, I got a call from
Newpro pushing to sell me more products, like gutters, etc. When I was asked for
the second time if I’d be interested in any other services, I repeated, again,
not at this time, when I heard a click. He hung up on me! No goodbye, no well
thank you for thinking of Newpro and thank you for your time. The
unprofessionalism is appalling. I will be complaining to the BBB and spreading
the word about this company’s tactics.
sense for
Yes, we got the whole four hour demo/sales pitch with “Quick, write a check or we’ll take away the $3200 discount after we leave!” Most of the sales pitch touted claims that could equally apply to basic middle of the road vinyl window. They were insistant that their windows were special space age ‘celuca’, a fancy name for cellular PVC. So, they’re windows made out of glass and cellular PVC (same as the synthetic lumber used for decking). Although well made, they are not that special to warant the $800/DH window price. The comparison is hard, because I haven’t found another company that uses celuca, but other window companies appear to be moving toward recycled fiberglass, a much stronger material and with excellent insulation properties. They don’t make helicopter blades from ‘celuca’. I do not think these folks will get their prices in line with what I’m prepared to pay, so it is likely that I will not use them. Even if they drop their prices, I would not feel comfortable dealing with a company which uses these dishonest pricing tatics. Their waranty certainly is tipped to their favor.